Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Does this seem sleazy to you?

Does this strike you as a rather sleazy thing to do?

Dwayne Dail was sent to prison 18 years ago, convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl he had never met. At the time he was in a relationship with Lori Michaels, who would give birth to his son, Chris, shortly after he was sent to prison.

Recently DNA evidence exonerated Dail. He was innocent after all. Having been cheated out of his son’s childhood I suspect Mr. Dail was quite happy when Chris, now 18, moved to Florida to be with his father. Under state law he can receive compensation of $20,000 for each year he spent in prison while innocent or around $360,000 in total.

Now Lori Michaels reenters the picture filing a law suit against Dail for back child support. And her attorney is the law partner of the man who prosecuted, and convicted, Dail for the crime he did not commit. Dail said: “To use our son as a pawn in this painful way is an attempt to blame the failures of her life on me. It is beyond my understanding and belief that someone could stoop so low.”

In this case state law says: "A child support payment or the relevant portion thereof is not past due and no arrearage accrues ... during any period when the supporting party is incarcerated, is not on work release and has no resources with which to make the payment."

The quickest way to get sued is to suddenly have a large sum of money.

The law suit, which I read, specifically says that the mother never sought support and is doing so now "based on information and belief the Defendant shall be entitled to compensation in the approximate amount of $360,000 dollars, the amount based on $20,0-00 per year, for Defendant's wrongful incarceration of in excess of 18 years." To pour salt into the wound this woman also wants additional compensation in order to pay the slimeball attorney she hired to sue Dail because she "is without sufficient means where on to subsist during the prosecution of this action..." As if the law suit itself wasn't sleazy enough Michaels managed to find an attorney, who is partners with the man that wrongly prosecuted Dail, to demand that Dail pay for the privilege of being sued for something over which he had no control. I suggest she sue her lawyer's law partner instead -- he was the one who put an innocent man into jail and made it impossible for him to care for his own son.

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